Rob Hunt Interview - Largest Marijuana Private Equity Fund

Reprinted courtesy of Stockerblog.com

The following fascinating interview was provided by Rob Hunt, a partner and the Lead Industry Executive at Tuatara Capital, the largest private equity fund in the cannabis industry. He also has an extensive background in cannabis business in Colorado, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine as well.

Rob  Hunt has more than 15 years of experience in the cannabis industry as an attorney, a consultant, and a serial entrepreneur. Rob is currently a Partner, and the Lead Industry Executive of Tuatara Capital.

Mr. Hunt was formerly the Chairman of the Coalition for Responsible Patient Care, based in MA, where he spearheaded the initiative to help develop and implement the fledgling medical cannabis market in the Commonwealth. He was the principal developer of cannabis.org, a website focused on changing the scheduling of cannabis away from being a schedule I drug on the Federal Government’s list of controlled substances, Rob still authors all of the written commentary on the cannabis.org Facebook page where he has an audience of close to 20,000 readers.

We cover a lot in this interview, including:

• The California marijuana proposition
• Why marijuana has remained illegal for so long
• The current credit card ban on dispensaries 
• Opinion on publicly traded cannabis stocks
• Crowdfunding for marijuana related companies
• Willie Nelson's brand of marijuana
• Advice for investors interested in allocating funds to the cannabis industry
• Advice for those who are interested in setting up a marijuana startup

The Interview

You will certainly enjoy all this great information that Rob Hunt provides.

To stream the interview, click:

HERE

You can download as an mp3 by right-clicking here and choosing "save as."

More information about Tuatara Capital can be found HERE.


Let us know what you think about this interview by entering your comments in the comment section below. You can also check out the stocks in the WallStreetNewsnetwork.com Marijuana Stock Index.

All opinions are those of Rob Hunt, and do not represent the opinions of Stockerblog.com or the interviewer. Neither Stockerblog nor the interviewer nor the interviewee are rendering tax, legal, or investment advice in this interview.

It is Now Legal

Monday, May 16, 2016, was a significant day for investors, especially non-accredited investors. First, let me give you some background.

Up until that day, if you wanted to invest in private equity, venture capital, or startups, you basically had to be an accredited investor. An accredited investor is anyone who earned income that exceeded $200,000 (or $300,000 together with a spouse) in each of the prior two years, and reasonably expects the same for the current year, OR has a net worth over $1 million, either alone or together with a spouse (excluding the value of the person’s primary residence).

With these very high thresholds, most investors were excluded from participating hot private deals, especially pre-IPO investments. However, with the implementation of Title III of the JOBS Act (Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act), the rules have changed giving all investors more of a level playing field for investing in private equity offerings.

As an example, if you have a net worth or income less than $100,000, you can invest the lower of either $2,000 or 5% of your annual income or net worth. Yet, there is a $2,000 floor, so you can invest a minimum of $2,000 per year without regard to your annual income or net worth.

This is similar to crowdfunding, yet instead of the contributor getting a product or being invited to a launch party, they receive equity in the company.

It is not just the small and medium size investors who benefit, the small startups will now have a lot of advantages. such as simplified financial disclosures and streamlined filings, as long as the amount raised  is less than $1 million.

If you feel so inclined to read the actual Securities and Exchange Commission Summary of Title III, you can read it here.

Some of the top equity crowdfunding platforms include CircleUp, RockThePost, MicroVentures, AngelList, and FoundersClub.

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